All Eyes on Coons

On Monday, in what I think are his most recent comments on the matter, Senator Chris Coons talked about his unease with the coming showdown over Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. He said he was worried that Democratic opposition to Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch would lead Republicans to trigger a “nuclear option,” eliminating the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees.

“I doubt he’s going to get 60 votes,” Coons told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “And the question then, Joe, becomes, ‘What do we do?’” Coons continued. “There’s a lot of finger-pointing. There’s a lot of Democrats justifiably still very mad about the treatment of Merrick Garland.”

We? What do we do? We don’t do anything. What Democrats have to do is vote no on cloture if they still want to call themselves Democrats.

What Republicans will do in response to that is not our problem. The consequences of whatever decision they make is on them. If they react by ending the filibuster, well then so be it. It will be their fault then. And they rightly deserve whatever blame they get, because they precipitated the events leading to the elimination of the filibuster by their obstructionist actions during the presidency of Barack Obama culminating with the blocking of the nomination of Merrick Garland.

But that should not be Chris Coons’ concern. He did not block Garland, so he has no responsibility for the coming actions. In fact, he should be concerned with punishing the Republicans for their obstruction of Garland, not in feeling that it is “tragic” that there is no longer any bipartisan comity in the Senate. Wake up Christopher. Bipartisan comity in the Senate died long before you even got to the Senate.

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13 comments on “All Eyes on Coons”

Like it or not the “nuclear option” is here, if the Republicans don’t kill the filibuster now they will in the near future. Call the little rascals office, demand he vote no on cloture and if he could try and act like a Dem every now and then.

If the roles were reversed, there is no way that the Republicans wouldn’t force the nuclear option. If this is the place where the Rs want to make their stand, great. We will have that threat off the table and we can use the rest of our tools.

Sorry, Coons has never been a progressive or a liberal. The moment he arrived in DC, he appeared on TV with Graham and McCain. Both Carper and Coons should republicans cuz they are both bought and owned by for profit insurance companies, credit card companies etc..

Gorsuch should be voted down by all democrats. After all if Trump is impeached he wont have the opportunity to appoint another Supreme. Now is the time to stop this right wing, corporate lovin Gorsuch. If Coons votes yea it will be very telling where Coons stands on a variety of issues.

Dems are out talking about Gorsuch as not being interested in protecting working people so deliver on that disapproval. You don’t oppose it in public and then vote for it on CSPAN. Coons (and others) and wringing their hands over the loss of an institution, really, an institution that hasn’t functioned as it should since Gingrich was Speaker. So let it go and play ball by the rules they set.

I don’t need to hear this “well, we should let Gorsuch go through so we can block an even more extreme nominee in the future” argument that Coons seems to be putting out there. Does Chris Coons even get it? If the GOP is going to go nuclear, they’ll go nuclear whenever they damned well please, this time, next time, some other time if Democrats ever find their spines.

Republicans are doing what they always do: “Give us our way or we’ll force our way on you.” Then Democrats run around, wringing their hands, going “OH, they don’t like us!! Whatever can we do to get them to like us?!?! We had better do what they say!!”

Republicans are worshippers of Machiavelli. They understand nothing except power. Every time Democrats give in, Republicans smile, stick the knife in deeper, and twist it a couple of times for good measure. People like Chris Coons are walking around with stab wounds all over their backs and they are too f***ing stupid or naive to see it.

Oops….only omitted one thing (how convenient)…..Harry Reid’s implementation of the nuclear option when the democrats were in power. Now the shoe’s on the other foot, and Senator Coons and his fellow democrats are SCREAMING FOUL! How disingenuous.

@”Jim Rambo” (overcompensating much with that name?): You conveniently left out that Republicans have left hundreds of judgeships vacant for years when Democrats held the presidency in the GOP’s attempt to remake the judiciary in a “conservative” image.